The Fire Was a Message
Chapter 06 - The Fire Was a Message
By dawn, the top two floors of Gabriel’s building were blackened shells.
The fire department called it an electrical explosion until investigators found traces of accelerant near the private office.
Gabriel watched the footage from Maine without speaking.
His penthouse had contained clothes, art, cash, weapons, legal documents, and almost no photographs. The few personal things he cared about had been in one cabinet beside his desk.
Rosa noticed where his eyes stayed.
“What was in there?”
“Nothing.”
She gave him the look only a mother could give a grown man with armed employees.
He sighed. “Elena’s wedding picture. Paulie’s first communion photo. One of you.”
Rosa’s face softened.
“Copies exist.”
“It isn’t the same.”
“No,” she said. “It isn’t.”
Norah watched from the kitchen doorway.
She was learning that Gabriel’s grief never appeared where expected. He did not mourn buildings. He mourned small proof that people had once belonged to him.
Leo entered carrying a laptop.
“Daniel emptied two client accounts before he disappeared.”
“How much?”
“Fourteen million.”
Gabriel barely reacted.
“Sebastian?”
“No direct transfer. Routed through Luxembourg and two shell companies.”
Rosa spoke from the table. “He’s running.”
“Or making us think he is,” Gabriel said.
Norah poured coffee.
She handed Gabriel a mug.
He accepted it without asking whether she had tasted it first.
They both noticed.
Neither commented.
Rosa opened another box from the cedar room.
Inside were copies of Claire’s notebooks.
Norah recognized her mother’s compact handwriting immediately.
The entries began as ordinary household records: rent, groceries, Norah’s school fees. Gradually, names appeared in the margins. License plates. Dates. Places.
Claire had been tracking people.
One name repeated over and over.
Evelyn March.
“Who is she?” Norah asked.
Gabriel and Leo exchanged a look.
“Sebastian’s wife,” Gabriel said.
Norah frowned. “Why was my mother following his wife?”
Rosa’s expression grew complicated.
“Because Evelyn tried to help us.”
That surprised Gabriel more than anything else had.
“Evelyn knew?”
“She knew Sebastian had ordered the fire. She found one of his men with burns the following morning. She also knew about the money he was hiding from Dominic.”
“Why not go to the police?”
Rosa almost smiled. “Which police?”
Gabriel had no answer.
“Evelyn gave Claire documents for years,” Rosa continued. “Quietly. Then she stopped.”
“Why?”
“She disappeared.”
Gabriel frowned. “She died of cancer.”
“That is what Sebastian announced.”
Norah felt a familiar chill.
“How many dead women in your life are actually dead?” she asked.
Leo almost choked on his coffee.
Even Gabriel gave a tired half-smile.
Rosa did not.
“Evelyn is dead,” she said. “Claire saw the body.”
The humor left the room.
“What happened?” Norah asked.
“An overdose. Officially accidental.”
“Unofficially?”
Rosa turned a notebook around.
On one page Claire had written: E.M. called at 10:42. Said S knows. Said she is sorry. Asked me to protect the boy.
Norah read it twice.
“What boy?”
Rosa shook her head. “We never knew.”
Gabriel stood abruptly.
“Sebastian has no sons.”
“No acknowledged sons,” Leo said.
The room fell silent again.
Gabriel picked up the notebook.
Several pages later, another entry mentioned a private Catholic school outside Boston and initials: T.M.
Leo began searching.
An hour later, he found a Thomas March, age thirty-three, graduate of St. Aloysius Preparatory, later Columbia Law.
Current occupation: federal prosecutor.
Norah looked at Gabriel. “That feels important.”
“It is,” Leo said.
Gabriel’s expression hardened. “Thomas March is the prosecutor who tried to indict me three years ago.”
Norah stared. “And you never knew he might be Sebastian’s son?”
“No.”
“Did Sebastian?”
“That’s the question.”
Rosa looked toward the sea. “Evelyn was twenty when she married Sebastian. If Thomas is thirty-three, she would have been about twenty-seven when he was born.”
“Why hide him?”
“Because his father may not be Sebastian.”
Norah followed her gaze to Gabriel.
“No,” Gabriel said immediately.
Rosa said nothing.
His face went rigid.
“No.”
“What?” Norah asked.
Gabriel looked almost sick again.
“My father had an affair with Evelyn.”
Rosa closed her eyes.
“You knew?”
“I suspected.”
“You suspected Dominic fathered a child with Sebastian’s wife and thought perhaps this wasn’t worth mentioning?”
“I did not know there was a child.”
Gabriel moved away from the table.
If Thomas March was Dominic’s son, then he was Gabriel’s half brother.
And if Sebastian had discovered that truth, it explained a hatred older than Gabriel’s reign.
Leo’s phone buzzed.
He read the message.
“Thomas March is in the city.”
Gabriel looked up.
“Where?”
“According to federal records, he requested emergency personal leave yesterday.”
“Reason?”
Leo hesitated.
“His mother’s estate attorney contacted him. Said there was new evidence regarding Evelyn’s death.”
Rosa stood.
“I sent that message.”
Gabriel turned on her.
“You contacted a federal prosecutor?”
“I contacted a son whose mother died because she tried to protect mine.”
“You don’t know he’s Dominic’s son.”
“No. But Sebastian thinks he is.”
“How do you know?”
Rosa reached into the box and removed a sealed envelope addressed to Thomas March.
“Because Evelyn told Claire the truth before she died.”
She placed the envelope on the table.
Gabriel stared at it.
Then headlights swept across the front windows.
A car had turned onto the long gravel drive.
One car.
No escort.
Leo checked the camera feed.
The driver stepped out beneath the porch light.
May you like
Norah recognized him from television.
Thomas March had arrived.
